


In Body and In Spirit

by Taste_of_Suburbia



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Asexual Relationship, F/M, Family, Flashbacks, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, rare ship swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 14:45:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3772171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taste_of_Suburbia/pseuds/Taste_of_Suburbia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their last night before the 75th Hunger Games and Beetee and Wiress share everything they are, knowing it’s the last chance they’ll have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Body and In Spirit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Suzume](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzume/gifts).



> Written for Rare Ship Swap for Suzume. Beetee and Wiress just have this perfect, unspoken bond and it was so nice to write that.

Their last night before the seventy-fifth Hunger Games was somewhat  _different._

Beetee and Wiress had spent all their nights together since coming to Panem, and all their nights together long before that point too. They ate dinner together and then Wiress would knock on Beetee’s door not even an hour after they retreated to their respective rooms, and Beetee would always let her in without a word. They didn’t need words, never had, but his hand settled on her back to let her know that she was needed.

That until she knocked he lay back on his bed, counting down the seconds, thinking incessantly about how lucky he had been to mentor Wiress through her games and then reunite with her at the bitter end, victorious, her arms extending as she noticed him and Beetee unable to contain his jubilation and rushing into them.

But then he thought about how unlucky he was too, that he had become friends and then fallen in love with Wiress, in the moments he felt like calling it that, only to have her ripped from him surely in these next few days. Not all of their allies would survive the games, but both Beetee and Wiress knew what to do. Despite Wiress falling into her familiar pattern of distance and her tendency to stray from socialization, something which had only grown worse as the years went on and they were forced to watch more of their district’s tributes slaughter and ultimately be slaughtered in the games, Beetee talked to her often about the importance of their mission.

He knew she understood, it was why she curled around him like a cat, so quick and so fast. It was why she came to him every night.

They weren’t lovers in the usual sense. They didn’t fool around, given neither of them were interested in sex. They would kiss and hold hands in the dark, they would whisper promises in the other’s ear and back them with every ounce of skill and expertise they had. In a way, it was good that both of them were going into the games. Wiress shouldn’t be without him now, and Beetee knew he couldn’t do this without Wiress.

But tonight was most likely their last night together, and they had to make it last as long as they could. They owed at least that much to each other after all they had been through, despite all that they had suffered and lost and given the fact that there would be more and more. Wiress echoed on the outside what Beetee was becoming on the inside, coming apart at the seams.

Only Wiress knew what and who he was. Only Wiress could love him for it.

“Is it okay?” Wiress asked him, the lights off and Beetee only able to see her outline in the dark. Yet he knew her every curve, every line etched into her face, every flaw that was meant for his eyes alone. Beetee was lucky for _this_ , but he would not be lucky for long. He could not be. “Or do you need to be alone?”

“I think it’s better that neither of us are alone tonight.”

Nuts and Volts. That’s what they called the two of them and Beetee smiled whenever he heard this whispered and almost forgot not to laugh. Wiress was the smartest, most intuitive woman he had ever known. It wasn’t her fault how the games had destroyed the part of her mind that made her susceptible to cruelty and jokes. Wiress was just as gifted as he and Beetee had known it for a long, long time, even before her games.

“I made it!” She had squeaked into his ear as he held her tightly, as he whispered the same thing for the both of them. “I’m out!” Her voice was so real and raw the second time around. She was sweaty and dirty and she had seemed almost livid as Beetee looked her over discreetly. She had refused to take a shower after all, wanting to see Beetee first. He understood, and he hadn’t cared whether Wiress had taken a bath in mud or even blood. She was alive.

She was _still_ Beetee’s. And maybe even more so.

He smiled in the dark as he remembered the scene. Wiress’ hands were on his face now, she knew what he was thinking about after all. Her deft fingers traced along the curve of his mouth and smoothed out his eyebrows, she took his glasses off and kissed his eyelids as if she were saying goodbye already. And it was enough, just to have her here. No groping for each other in the dark, no muffled screams, just losing control in their own way, wrapping around each other as if they would never be forcibly separated in the morning.

It was hours and hours until dawn. Hours that were essentially nothing. A blip in time. They were going in together this time and that was different.

This was different too.

Beetee let Wiress hold his glasses in her hands as he scooped her up and carried her over to his bed. In district three it wasn’t just separate rooms, but separate houses, and Wiress had long since abandoned her own to live with him. They had been together for so long Beetee couldn’t remember his life without her, and despite the brutality of the games, despite that he couldn’t escape them for even one year, he had Wiress by his side to share the torment and the burden and that was enough. It was enough than most people had really.

A lot of the victors got on well and even became friends, though the friendships came out of tragedy and even an almost obligation and that was never lost on him. It’s not that Beetee hated them or even blamed them. You had to get something out of the games because being a victor was more of a loss than a gain. Being a victor was survivor’s guilt, a way to torture yourself and convince yourself that you weren’t better than President Snow or the entirety of Panem. You watched the games every year with nearly as much anticipation and awe. These emotions numbed after time but they made you despicable and cruel.

They never told you, but the very people you were fighting for? You became beloved and beholden to them, and the people you really cared about, the ones you grew up with and mentored and could no longer be no matter how much you tried, they became your enemies. Or rather, you became theirs. 

When Beetee looked in the mirror he was no longer from district three, no longer an innocent but still a pawn. He had become the enemy. He had killed his way out of the games just to survive, and he had ruined Wiress’ life by training her to do the same. Wiress and Beetee. They belonged together just like this. They had corrupted their people, their once _family,_ and now all they deserved was each other. If there was a way to get out of it all, for _good,_ if there was a way to help Katniss and Peeta and stop these games once and for all, then he would give his life for it. Wiress would surely follow him into the depravity as well as the waiting dark.  

Wiress didn’t have to tell him she was scared; he could hear the thundering of her heart and could practically see the thoughts and images warring inside her head. He knew what she was thinking about most of the time, but he wondered what she thought of him.

“I don’t think I...,” Wiress started but couldn’t finished.

“Can do this much longer,” Beetee finished for her, smiling sadly. They wouldn’t have to, that was one promise he could keep to her even though he had never been able to keep any others. These would be the last games. Despite that literally anything could happen once they stepped foot onto the playing field, he knew things would change more than they ever had before.

Wiress sat up suddenly and Beetee realized he had forgotten about his glasses as she slipped them back on, pushing them up the bridge of his nose when they slid down. “As long as we have each other, right?” Wiress’ question was barely audible, but Beetee was about to say the same thing himself.

As long as Wiress stayed close, both in body and in spirit.

**FIN**


End file.
